"I want my pictures to tell a story,” explains Ilse.
Ilse Noor is a renowned fine graphic artist who uses etching to communicate her ideas about the world. Her semi-autobiographical work depicts landscapes, animals, buildings or objects, which often suggest a deeper, hidden meaning. Landscapes harbour dark secrets, animals are deceitful, honourable or playful and objects are used to depict happiness, rage or loss.
Inspiration is drawn from her surroundings. Born in Wipperfürth, Germany, Ilse studied art under H Stucke in Bonn, Germany and graphic art in Munich under Professor Franz Nagel at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, before emigrating to Malaysia. Ilse’s works depict a love for her adopted culture, mixing the precise art of etching with a world of emotions and spiritualism.
Ilse’s earliest inspiration was from German realism. “Ernst Fuchs and Alfred Kubin used to interest me,” says Ilse, “As a child I found ‘Die Andere Seite’ (The Other Side). on my mother’s book shelf by writer and illustrator Alfred Kubin. It was the illustrations in this book that fascinated me and which also inspired Franz Kafka to write ‘Das Schloss’ (The Castle). s, cultures and people.
Her art is a semi autobriographical journey influenced by Ilse’s fascination with the myths, legends, traditions and cultures of both east and west. From dwarfs forging metal in the middle of the earth, Tristan and Isolde, knights and the griffin of European legend to the Malay Keris, cenderawasih the mythical bird of paradise, and from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart to keroncong and gamelan. Ilse straddles both worlds, as artist, writer and poet.
Apart from just under a 100 group and solo exhibitions worldwide, Ilse has also written three books, illustrated posters, magazines and various children’s books including for Oxford University Press.
